I Love those Old Active Cats they were the Shizzel back in the day !:cool:

They were the first of the big cat's to be made of fiberglass & kevlar and resin. Our black 33' Active,,[ Cougar ] work well for being the first one built. Gary Steuwe [ Nasty ]was the first to race her in the worlds in Keywest 1981. After Bob Kehrig retired her from racing in 1985 we put a new deck on, and it became Bob's pleasure boat for many years, till she finally was retired around 1995.

I used to work for Ross from 91 till 97and still work on Bob 's stuff, I worked on the old race boat with retro fitted pleasure deck for Bob a couple of times fixing rotted out fittings and poped bondo before he sold it down in florida.
I also repaired a 32' Active which was Bud's pleasure cat that Terry mullin's sold to a guy on the other side of the state ( Troy Estes ) Tunnel came out from the Drivers bulk head to the transom, It was the first big job when I left express to go on my own.
Spark

Yes Rob and I used alot of bondo, and when John Avery and I rigged her we used alot of spare parts. Bob loved that boat it wasn't fast but she was a classic.

Robby stop s bye my shop to bust my nuts every once in a while and John stops buy or calls wanting a price on a cat hull and deck or just to see whats going on.
Seems like we have bolth ran in the same circles.

Spark

We still do,, I have been your Offshore Referee, in the Great Lake's, Silver cup, APBA, OSS, OPA, USO, for the last 12 year's making sure guy's play nice !!!!!! Mark

Mark, It's nice to meet ya again ! If your in the area stop bye the shop and say Hi, Had to miss the Traffic light deal for Ed the other weekend been sick and I have Trophy sitt'in jersy to pick up for Hi points champions Hoping I can get Smitty to hual it to Kart to Kart.

Got ta go.
Spark

Thanks for the invite I like to see your new place and your new 27'. Mark

my queston is look at all this michigan history............Why only a coule races a year......

Back In The Good Ole Days,

Traverse City
Bay City
Grand Haven
Detroit River
St. Clair
Sagatuck
Muskegeon

MICHIGAN HAD SOME GREAT RACE SITES, I GUESS WE ARE LUCKY NOW JUST TO HAVE A FEW FULL SERVICE MARINA'S AND BAR'S. :rolleyes:

Cost OF RACING
 

LSCORA was one of the oldest Offshore clubs in the country, at it's hayday 1977 to 1990 we had 200+ member's. The cost then to put on a race, Divisional $5,000.00 or less, a National around $20,000.00, then the National Circuit split ABBA, OPT, USO, are club even split,, LSCORA vs MOPRA over this we all lost member's. Race sites dried up, some racer's quit, as the 90's rolled on it became harder to put on a race due to cost and people that wanted to help !! We tried a new approach Silver Cup Series and it worked !!! but higher cost Insurance, TV, Sight cost, ect, ect. We even put the clubs back together, but by 2002 LSCORA only had about 12 active member's to find sponsors. Our Metro Beach Race cost for the last 3 race's we did was $80,000.00 to $100,0000.00 in 2004 for a Silver Cup race. And when your boat count drop's to 30,, money come's out of your own pocket to pay the bill's,, that's very hard to do. I wish we could still race for Beer and a Trophy, our Michigan economy can't suport multiple race's now, money is very tight. MY HAT"S OFF to OPA, and the race sight's we have, Like St Clair River Race, and Algonac, Im sure they need help if you can !! please do,, so we don't lose these GREAT Race's. There are many more reason's than these,, but I have run off ENOUGH !!

Talk about Back In The Day, I found this add for Good Year in a Feb- 8- 1969 Businessweek magazine I thought it was so cool I have kept almost 40 year's. The Bahamas 500, the add say's it took 11 to 13 hour's to run talk about Endurance !!! Slamming through heavy seas at 65mph for 500 miles some drivers were knocked unconscious, others Hospitalized !!!!! Who up for a race like this today ???????? If you enlarge the add you should be able to read it.

Vicious, you still have the AERO molds???

I thought that was a good boat....

1989 or 1990 first team i was with was a active cat, kaisers old black cat, named priority one. we thought we were hauling but then. innovation injected engines
mike stancombe
peppers racing

It probley was Red's,, Active rent a cat, it went by many different name's. I know it was at one time G K Systems with Bob Kaiser.

Boys, that`s what it was all about, and how the sport really started. I happened to have been in the original first three 500`s, They were actually 582 statute miles long with one refueling stop halfway in Nassau. Notice the headlights on the bow. We started the race at daybreak, we went out Lucaya cut in the dark, which was scary, over 75 boats heading to the starting line in the dark, and yes it was rough. The first time I ran the race, I was in a 21` Seacraft we built at Lake X twin 110hp outboards top out about 48 to 50 mph. out of the 75 or so starters we finished eighth overall and first outboard powered boat, took us close to 16 hours, we stuffed so bad a couple of times, that it sucked us out of the cockpit and put us on top of each other in the motor well, after two times happening we tied ourselves into the cockpit and just blew through the rest of the way, in the dark. Our skin was shriveled like prunes from the salt spray, and it took us couple hours before we could stand up on land without falling over, I was 18 yrs old, forged my parents signature to race, you were supposed to be 21. Many stories to long for the forums to tell about the good old days and these types of races. I hope to one day write a book about all my experiences. I was the youngest guy on the Merc. team at the time, many stories.
Thanks for the pix of Mono Lou, Odell is still around in Fla. somewhere, he has some good stories as well. 7XCHAMP

When I found that pic in 1969 I was 16 years old, living in Detroit I never saw anything like that, it got me Hooked. Started Racing in 1974 and we even won the worlds in 1992 with the Skater Eastern Express and even today Im still in it as a Offshore Referee still HOOKED almost 40 years later because of that Pic. 7xchamp Im sure many never knew about those early Races [Back In The Day] many THANKS for your input !!!!

I know,, I was there, it was my first race, in my 24' Cheetah jet boat. Bounty Hunter lap me many times !!!!!!

Still have all the molds we are retooling the 27' right now.

Spark

Phil you sure had many cool Bertrams back then, I remember the adds you ran Back In The Day.

Betty Cook on the Detroit River 1980, studying the chart, to find a way to win again as she did the year before with her Cougar cat. Joel Halpren won the 173 mile Spirt Of Detroit race this time with his Cougar cat. Betty would win again in 1981 with her Michelob Light 38' Scarab on one motor !!!!! When Wolverine the first boat back,, was DQd for missing a checkpoint.

here is a couple of a nice bertram...........AKA swap shop........thanks h20 the old man loved this one.....

when it was a race boat..............

having trouble with the pics..........sorry guys

bertram when the old man was done...........

one more

Here is a pic of my not so famous 1976 banana raced in the northeast back in the late 70's early 80's. I just purchased this boat and am hoping to restore this boat to the original look. The name of it was Second Choice # 47.

here is the boat today no longer a classic 70's boat but a classic 80's

That Bertram 38 is gorgeous.

nocig I found the add your dad must have seen, it's from a 1976 Powerboat. Looks like he bought the sport Bertram with the back seat. The price was right !!!

Thank you - they were fun boats -

There´s something very ´Charlie´s Angels´ about this shot......

Two great Sport class Vee's racing on the Detroit River around 1981. The late Gary Steuwe in NASTY he was Mr RUMRUNNER in his later day's. And Dan Weinstein POWER-PLAY.

wait till he sees this..................

The LATE Gary Steuwe ? when, how, where ?

PHIL

I met Gary through Bill Elswick, and He was a true gentleman!